double-nickel

plural double-nickels

1. USslangThe national speed limit of 55 miles per hour introduced in the USA in 1974.

   But in 1982 they found a loophole: Keep the double-nickel speed limit, but effectively allow motorists to drive up to 65 by designating that speed a “waste of a finite resource” and setting the fine at $15.

   2015 February 17, Howard Fischer, “Bill takes teeth out of state speed limits”, in Arizona Daily Star

   1 more example

   Peckinpah is just as interested in the old golf-cart codger who says “Damn the double-nickel!” (in reference to the 55mph speed limit) as he is in Duck or Lyle, and much more so than in Ali MacGraw’s character, along for the ride and marquee value.

   2015 August 20, Michael Barrett, “Damn the Double Nickel: "Convoy" Shows a Great Director Slumming”, in Pop Matters

2. USslangThe number 55 (by extension).

   This night was insane. Knicks win, Sixers win, Wolves win. Kyrie drops a double-nickel.

   2015 January 29, Matt Moore, “Five-Star Review: Kyrie Irving's double-nickel night”, in CBSSports

present singular third person double-nickels · US participle present double-nickeling · UK participle present double-nickelling · US participle past double-nickeled · US past double-nickeled · UK participle past double-nickelled · UK past double-nickelled

1. To travel at 55 miles per hour.

   Rose’s EarthCruiser – seven hundred thousand dollars’ worth of imported rolling steel, the best RV money could buy – led the parade. But slowly, just double-nickeling it.

   2013, Stephen King, Doctor Sleep, New York: Scribner, →ISBN, chapter 2, section 3, page 91